Description:
In this STTR program, Structured Materials Industries (SMI), and Cornell University are developing novel gate oxide technology, as a critical enabler for silicon carbide (SiC) devices. SiC is a wide bandgap semiconductor material, with many unique properties. SiC devices are ideally suited for high-power, highvoltage, high-frequency, high-temperature and radiation resistant applications. The DOE has expressed interest in developing SiC devices for use in extreme environments, in high energy physics applications and in power generation. The development of transistors based on the Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) structure will be critical to these applications.

Description:
The goal of this project is to develop a low-cost and low-energy technology for production of photovoltaic devices based on InGaN materials. This project builds on the ongoing development by Structured Materials Industries (SMI), of novel thin film deposition technology for Group III-Nitride materials, which is capable of depositing Group-III nitride materials at significantly lower costs and significantly lower energy usage compared to conventional deposition techniques. During this project, SMI demonstrated deposition of GaN and InGaN films using metalorganic sources, and demonstrated compatibility of the process with standard substrate materials and hardware components.

Description:
Aluminum was deposited onto both Teflon AF and Parylene AF surfaces by chemical vapor deposition of trimethylaluminum. This work shows that similar thin film (100 Angstroms) aluminum oxide adlayers form on both polymers at the low temperature dosing conditions used in the studies. Upon anneal to room temperature and above, defluorination of the polymer surfaces increased and resulted in fluorinated aluminum oxide adlayers; the adlayers were thermally stable to the highest temperatures tested (600 K). Angle-resolved spectra showed higher levels of fluorination toward the polymer/adlayer interface region. Copper films were also deposited at low temperature onto Teflon AF using a copper hexafluoroacetylacetonate-cyclooctadiene precursor. Annealing up to 600 K resulted in the loss of precursor ligands and a shift to metallic copper. As with aluminum adlayers, some polymer defluorination and resulting metal (copper) fluoride was detected. Parylene AF and polystyrene films surfaces were modified by directly dosing with water vapor passed across a hot tungsten filament. Oxygen incorporation into polystyrene occurred exclusively at aromatic carbon sites, whereas oxygen incorporation into parylene occurred in both aromatic and aliphatic sites. Oxygen x-ray photoelectron spectra of the modified polymers were comparable, indicating that similar reactions occurred. The surface oxygenation of parylene allowed enhanced reactivity toward aluminum chemical vapor deposition. Silicon-carbon (Si-Cx) films were formed by electron beam bombardment of trimethylvinylsilane films which were adsorbed onto metal substrates at low temperatures in ultra-high vacuum. Oxygen was also added to the films by coadsorbing water before electron beam bombardment; the films were stable to more than 700 K, with increasing silicon-oxygen bond formation at elevated temperatures. Copper metal was sputter deposited in small increments onto non-oxygenated films. X-ray photoelectric spectra show three-dimensional copper growth (rather than layer-by-layer growth), indicating only weak interaction between the copper and underlying films. Annealing at elevated temperatures caused coalescence or growth ...

Description:
Ge(mnn) surfaces between (100) and (111) were annealed under either arsine or phosphine in a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition chamber, then imaged with a scanning tunneling microscope. In general, arsine-exposed Ge surfaces are facetted, while phosphine-exposed surfaces remain flat. For the arsine-exposed Ge surfaces, four stable facetting directions have been identified: (100), (11,3,3), (955), and (111).

Description:
Issues related to the growth of nitride-based UV emitters are investigated in this work. More than 100 times of improved in the optical efficiency of the GaN active region can be attained with a combination of raising the growth pressure and introducing a small amount of indium. The unique issue in the UV emitter concerning the use of AlGaN for confinement and the associated tensile cracking is also investigated. They showed that the quaternary AlGaInN is potentially capable of providing confinement to GaN and GaN:In active regions while maintaining lattice matching to GaN, unlike the AlGaN ternary system.

Description:
The 3-junction, GaInP2/GaAs/Ge solar cell is a non-optimized structure due to excess light falling on the Ge junction. Because of this, a fourth junction inserted between the GaAs and Ge subcells could use the excess light and provide an increase in device efficiency. Unfortunately, the leading candidate material, GaInNAs, suffers from very low minority-carrier diffusion lengths compared to its parent compound, GaAs. These low diffusion lengths do not allow for the collection of adequate current to keep the overall 4-junction structure current matched. If the currents generated from the GaInNAs subcell are increased, the possibility exists for practical efficiencies of greater than 40% from this structure.

Description:
This LDRD is aimed to place Sandia at the forefront of GaN-based technologies. Two important themes of this LDRD are: (1) The demonstration of novel GaN-based devices which have not yet been much explored and yet are coherent with Sandia's and DOE's mission objectives. UV optoelectronic and piezoelectric devices are just two examples. (2) To demonstrate front-end monolithic integration of GaN with Si-based microelectronics. Key issues pertinent to the successful completion of this LDRD have been identified to be (1) The growth and defect control of AlGaN and GaN, and (2) strain relief during/after the heteroepitaxy of GaN on Si and the separation/transfer of GaN layers to different wafer templates.

Description:
The growth of GaAs thin films on Molybdenum foils was investigated in an attempt to find a low-cost substrate for GaAs. The films were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The film thickness was in the 2-4{micro}m range, while the deposition temperature was in the 650-825 C range. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the film morphology and microstructure, respectively. The film morphology in general, and the grain size in particular, were found to be strongly dependent on the growth temperature. However, the defect structure observed in these films was relatively insensitive to the growth conditions.

Description:
InGaAsN alloys are a promising material for increasing the efficiency of multi-junction solar cells now used for satellite power systems. However, the growth of these dilute N containing alloys has been challenging with further improvements in material quality needed before the solar cell higher efficiencies are realized. Nitrogen/V ratios exceeding 0.981 resulted in lower N incorporation and poor surface morphologies. The growth rate was found to depend on not only the total group III transport for a fixed N/V ratio but also on the N/V ratio. Carbon tetrachloride and dimethylzinc were effective for p-type doping. Disilane was not an effective n-type dopant while SiCl4 did result in n-type material but only a narrow range of electron concentrations (2-5e17cm{sup -3}) were achieved.

Description:
The objective of this work is to perform transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies of GaP(N,As) alloys grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on Si substrates. These alloys are of interest for the fabrication of high-efficiency tandem solar cells based on Si. The results indicated that the nucleation and growth conditions used are critical for obtaining planar epitaxial layers with a low defect density. In particular, antiphase domains are eliminated using a low growth temperature. TEM studies of these alloy layers, which contain only a few percent N, revealed no phase separation. However, electron diffraction studies revealed the first evidence of CuPt-type atomic ordering in these P-rich, dilute nitride alloy layers.

Description:
The focus of the Phase 1 effort concerned further development of ZnO buffer layers. This work included further optimization of the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth process and investigations of the interaction of zinc and oxygen with the absorber layers. Although much of the work had been done with Siemens' CIS material prior to this reporting period, a process for growing ZnO buffer layers on Siemens' CIGSS absorber had not been developed. The authors determined that a two-step procedure involving raising the substrate temperature to 250 C in nitrogen and then growing the buffer layer at 100 C works well with CIGSS material. Through collaboration with the Institute of Energy Conversion (IEC), completed cells with efficiencies in the 11% to 12% range were fabricated with the following structure: RF n-ZnO/i-ZnO/CIGSS. Cells with this structure were included as part of the Transient team studies. Cells were subjected to dark storage at 80 C, followed by a light soak at 40 C at IEC. Illuminated I-V curves taken at each stage of the study determined that these cells do not degrade under dark-storage conditions, which had been observed for Siemens cells with CdS buffer layers. To understand the reaction of zinc and oxygen with the absorber layers, secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) depth concentration profiles were obtained for i-ZnO/CIS structures through collaboration with Angus Rockett at the University of Illinois. SIMS profiles were obtained for ZnO films grown on polycrystalline CIS and epitaxial CIS films grown on GaAs. Comparison of the profiles strongly suggests that zinc and oxygen diffuse into the CIS along grain boundaries during the MOCVD growth process. It is also proposed that excess zinc along grain boundaries may result in the grain boundaries being n-type, which can result in enhanced loss currents. This model is consistent with the ...

Description:
This report describes research performed by the University of Florida during Phase 2 of this subcontract. First, to study CIGS, researchers adapted a contactless, nondestructive technique previously developed for measuring photogenerated excess carrier lifetimes in SOI wafers. This dual-beam optical modulation (DBOM) technique was used to investigate the differences between three alternative methods of depositing CdS (conventional chemical-bath deposition [CBD], metal-organic chemical vapor deposition [MOCVD], and sputtering). Second, a critical assessment of the Cu-In-Se thermochemical and phase diagram data using standard CALPHAD procedures is being performed. The outcome of this research will produce useful information on equilibrium vapor compositions (required annealing ambients, Sex fluxes from effusion cells), phase diagrams (conditions for melt-assisted growth), chemical potentials (driving forces for diffusion and chemical reactions), and consistent solution models (extents of solid solutions and extending phase diagrams). Third, an integrated facility to fabricate CIS PV devices was established that includes migration-enhanced epitaxy (MEE) for deposition of CIS, a rapid thermal processing furnace for absorber film formation, sputtering of ZnO, CBD or MOCVD of CdS, metallization, and pattern definition.

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